An early reader of Vesalius' Fabrica, Vesalius, III, 2, 73 - 74,1997

An early reader of Vesalius' Fabrica

V. Nutton

Summary

Hieronymus Gemusaeus (1505-1544), Professor of Medicine at Basle, is the earliest known reader of Vesalius' "Fabrica", commenting on it in a preface dated 1 August, 1543.

Résumé

Hieronymus Gemusaeus (1505-1544), professeur de médecine à l'Université de Bâle, dans une préface datée du 1er août 1543, nous donne les premières réponses d'un lecteur du "De Fabrica" de Vésale.

Antonio Fumanelli of Verona can hardly be especially that of Oporinus, a variety of authors, called well-known even by the most ardent of both old and new (2). The son-in-law of the specialists in renaissance medicine. humanist editor Cratander, he must have been a familiar figure around the printing shops of his Biographers and bibliographers say nothing adopted city. of his life beyond the publication dates of his books, beginning in 1536, but his contempora- Writing in March 1543 in his preface to an ries evidently had a higher opinion of him, for a edition of Paul of Aegina, published by Oporinus, publisher risked bringing out a reprint of all his Gemusaeus announced to the world the immi- writings in 1557 (1). nent publication, from the same printer, of Vesa- lius' De human! corporis fabrica, a work at the The volume includes his "Omnium febrium et importance of which Gemusaeus could only hint dignoscendarum et curandarum absolutissima (3). methodus", which was first published in Basle by Johannes Oporinus in 1534, and which opens Five busy months later, in the preface to with a preface by Hieronymus Gemusaeus, dated Fumanelli, he could declare his opinion of the 1 August, 1543. Fabrica, whose colophon bears the date 1 June and which was probably published a few days Gemusaeus (1505-1544), professor of me- later. dicine at the University of Basle from the late 1530s onwards, was extremely active in the "We have recently discovered that Andreas world of publishing, seeing through the press, Vesalius, the leading figure in the discipline of anatomy, in that work of great endeavour Vivian Nutton, just published, On the fabric of the human Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, body, has dealt with many passages in 183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE, Great Britain that were completely unknown to

73 An early reader of Vesalius' Fabrica, Vesalius, III, 2, 73 - 74,1997

most people. Some of them he has explai- It is also worth noting that he also saw how ned, others he has restored" (4). much Vesalius depended upon, and could be seen as developing, the ideas and practices of Gemusaeus then goes on to say that the his ancient predecessor. greatest of respect is due to those, he implies like Vesalius, who are the first to make important discoveries. Notes

His comments are of interest for a variety of 1. Biographical details, such as they are, are reasons. They are the earliest evidence of easiest found in E. Gurlt, A. Wernich, A. anyone reading the Fabrica, and confirm that it Hirsch, eds, Lexikon der hervorragenden must have been published soon after the date of Artze, Berlin, Vienna, Urban and Schwar- the colophon. zenberg, 1884-1888, II, pp. 645-6. For his collected works, see Antonius Fumanellus, Secondly, Gemusaeus sees the Fabrica as Opera multa ac varia , Zurich, A. Gesner, marking a break with what has gone before, 1557. even if he interprets it, much in line with Vesalius' 2. The best bibliographical sketch is that by A. own rhetoric, as a correction, interpretation, and Burckhardt, Geschichte der medizinischen proper restoration of the anatomical enterprise Fakultat in , Basle, F. Reinhardt, begun by Galen. 1917, pp. 42-43. 3. This important passage was first noted by Thirdly, although a Galenist himself - he had M. Roth, Bruxellensis, been one of the editors responsible for the 1538 Berlin, Reimer, 1892, p. 128. No one, so far Basle edition of the complete works of Galen in as I know, has cited its sequel. Greek - and writing a preface to a treatise that 4. Fumanelli, Opera multa, p. 412 : Sic enim depended almost entirely on Galenic ideas, and Andream Vesalium, anatomicaedisciplinae even wording, he welcomes the Fabrica, despite antistem, locos eius (Galeni) permultos a its strong criticisms of Galen. ceteris antea plane ignoratos, partim explicasse, partim etiam restituisse, ex His attitude serves as a warning to those who operosissimo illo De Humani corporis assume that all the medical humanists, of whom fabrica, a se nunc primum edito volumine, Gemusaeus was certainly one, must have fol- nuper cognovimus. lowed the line of Jacobus Sylvius or John Caius in condemning Vesalius'departures from Galenic orthodoxy. Bibliography There were others, like , Vivian Nutton, M.A., Ph.D., is Professor of the History equally committed to Galen and the classics, of Medicine at University College London, and Head who shared Gemusaeus' positive evaluation of of the Academic Unit of the Wellcome Institute for the Vesalius, and whose appreciation helped to History of Medicine. He has published extensively on ensure the swift success of the new anatomy all aspects of the history of medicine in the period from around Europe. One might argue that personal the Greeks to the Renaissance. friendship with Oporinus and, although proof is lacking, with Vesalius, whom he may well have met in the publishing house, led Gemusaeus to approve of Vesalian anatomy.

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